Goa Beach Holiday at Agonda Serenity Resort

This trip to Goa was my first to India and I couldn’t have been more excited to experience a slice of a country that had been on my bucket list from the day I made it. I knew it wasn’t going to be the chaos that is Mumbai and Delhi but I was still excited to try the food and explore the beaches of Goa. We booked this trip for October half term which meant we were visiting just as the monsoon season was ending and had limited accommodation options available. That said I think we might have found the best one…

Agonda Serenity Resort

As I mentioned above, because we were still a little out of peak season most of Goa’s famous beach huts were still being rebuilt after the monsoons. This meant there wasn’t many beach front options available for our stay. However, we ended up booking Agonda Serenity Resort and what an amazing place it was!

This gorgeous beach front spot had about a dozen beach huts sat around a little garden and bar area right on the beach. They had a few different types of huts but we opted for the cheapest type and it was still brilliant. Each hut had a spacious cabin with the bed and a desk inside, out the back was an outdoor bathroom and in the front was a little porch and veranda area. As part of the resort there was also a bar area on the edge of the beach which served food and drink all day long. That bar became our favourite spot of the holiday, we ate there, sunbathed there, sheltered from the rain there and chatted to the friendly hotel staff.

You could then walk straight onto the beach which stretched for a few kms to the left while the bay ended not far to the right. Everyday we would watch the cows choose their favourite spot for sunbathing, hear the locals working on the surrounding beach huts and smell the delights of food cooking all around us. It was a peaceful spot perfect for people watching and just enjoying a slow pace of life.

Palolem Beach

For most of our five days in India we enjoyed Agonda Beach, wandered the town, drank too much tea and kingfisher beer, ate a lot of local food and watched the sunset into the ocean. For people who aren’t great at sitting still on holiday we did a pretty good job. However, we couldn’t come all this way and only see one small town.

Palolem was around a 15 minute tuk-tuk ride from Agonda and it was a much larger beach town with many more beach huts constructed for visitors, this made it much busier than Agonda. We later learnt it is also popular with Indian holiday makers which was another reason for the sudden increase in people.

Palolem had a gorgeous bay, lined with dozens of palm trees over the beach area. The beach itself was thinner and with the sheer amount of guesthouses and restaurants lining the ocean it immediately felt smaller than Agonda. This being said, it had a much more energetic vibe with people bustling around everywhere, boats came and went while plenty played by the waters’ edge.

Cafes in Agonda and Palolem

The highlight of Palolem has to be the vast choice of cafes, especially vegan options. We grabbed a spot of lunch with some friends in Little World and although the service was slow the menu was extensive and the food impressive. We’d also heard amazing things about Zest Cafe but both the branch here and in Agonda were not yet open for the season.

Aside from our restaurant at Agonda Serenity Resort, we also ventured out for a few meals. As we were visiting early in the season some spots were still closed but we enjoyed a delicious salad at Avocado Garden where seating was typically on the ground among cosy cushions and blankets. To find this little spot just follow the sign from the main road, keep walking even when it feels like you’re heading no where, I promise it’s there. Another spot we enjoyed a few times was Fatima Bar and Restaurant, their menu has huge and the cafe always busy. As they weren’t located beach front we also found the prices here to be insanely cheap.